This paper comprises brief descriptions by faculty at 13 veterinary schools in Europe, North America, South America, and Australasia that summarize undergraduate training in animal welfare at the respective schools and how students are assessed.

In a 2×2 factorial experiment, groups of 6 sheep were moved from individual pens where they had access to hay and water to environmental chambers kept at either 14°C or 21°C. Within each chamber, half the sheep had access to water but they were all kept at a space allowance of 0.41 m²/sheep with...

An operant crate and a push-door were used to measure feeding motivation in Suffolk sheep (2-4 years of age) after 0, 6, 12, 18 and 24 h without feed. In experiment 1 (n=12), sheep had to push a panel with their noses to obtain a feed reward. In experiment 2 (n=14), sheep had to run a race and push ...

Most sheep sent for slaughter in the United Kingdom are sold through livestock markets. This study counted the potentially bruising events at 2 markets handling 12 119 sheep from 549 groups and recorded the bruises on carcases of sheep from these markets. There were 1324 and 744 potentially bruising...

The bruising of sheep carcases results in economic losses to the meat industry and is one indicator of welfare problems before slaughter. In this study the numbers of potentially bruising events and the transport conditions of sheep taken directly from farms to a slaughter house were related to the ...

The resting behaviour of 64 groups of sheep was observed in the lairages of 2 slaughterhouses after transport for about 4 hours in a commercial livestock transporter. The sheep were watched at 5 minute intervals for the initial 3 hours in the lairage pen. The median percentage of time spent lying pe...

Scan samples of the postural, eating and drinking behaviours of 92 groups of cattle, and focal samples of the eating and drinking behaviour of 378 individuals, were made during the initial 3 h in a commercial slaughterhouse lairage. Cattle which arrived from markets spent more time drinking and lay ...

The handling of 39 cattle during unloading and movement to slaughter of 163 was observed at a commercial abattoir. Most potentially traumatic events and handling events occurred while the cattle were in the race. During the initial 3 hours in the lairage pen, 28 cattle from markets spent significant...

This study quantified potentially traumatic events during handling (350 groups; n=3296), and the effect of source and sex class on the occurrence of carcass bruising of cattle (339 groups; n=3270) at 2 commercial slaughterhouses. A mean of 0.13 and 0.97 potentially traumatic events per animal occurr...

Methods to assess changes in the mental state of animals in response to their environment can be used to provide information to enhance animal welfare. One of the most profound changes of mental state observable in mammals is the change between wakefulness and sleep. Sleeping mammals have characteri...

Groups of sheep were observed in a slaughterhouse lairage in order to investigate the factors affecting their ability to rest. 34 groups were observed using a video camera and recorder from arrival to dusk (evening) and from dawn to removal (morning). 19 groups were transported by road to the slaugh...

Protecting farm animals from hunger and thirst is central to good welfare. However, there are a large number of situations where farm animals are exposed to nutrient restriction. Some of these, such as the effects of prenatal nutrition have received insufficient recognition as welfare issues. Genera...

The effect of a novel lairage environment on the ability of sheep to recover from 16 h of transport was investigated. Sheep were transported from grass paddocks to either novel outside paddocks or inside pens, and housed groups were transported to either familiar or novel inside pens. During transpo...

Concern has been expressed over the welfare of horses transported from the USA for slaughter in Canada. United States Department of Agriculture owner/shipper certificates for the year 2009 were analyzed to provide quantitative information on the patterns and durations of these journeys. In 2009, hor...

Methods for culling wild red deer (Cervus elaphus) were compared by observing behaviour and collecting post mortem samples from wild deer shot: (i) by a single stalker during daytime; (ii) by more than one stalker during daytime; (iii) by using a helicopter for the deployment of stalkers and carcase...

Questionnaires on methods of euthanasia used in Canadian animal shelters were sent to 196 Canadian animal shelters yielding 67 responses. Sodium pentobarbital injection was the only method of euthanasia used by 61% establishments that euthanized dogs and 53% of the establishments that euthanized cat...

Objectives:
The aim was to characterize the behaviour and faecal glucocorticoid metabolite (FGM) responses of six cats (Felis catus) to single caging for 30 days.
Design In this observational study, changes in outcome measures were monitored with habituation to caging. Continuous focal observat...